It’s not just the moms shopping for large families or the boomers who remember buying milk for $1.50 that are in disbelief over grocery prices right now. Young adults who are freshly out of college are, like all of us, experiencing major sticker shock when it comes to groceries.
Take it from one Gen Z Redditor, who seems to be living in the same hellscape we all are.
“I’m not Jeff Bezos, I’m not a Kardashian,” @Wild-Nail4873 wrote. “I’m a 23 year old with a normal job buying eggs and bread like a peasant. Why does it cost $350 a month?”
The Redditor went on to explain that they don’t splurge; their cart is generally eggs, chicken, rice, vegetables, and bread. “No fancy cheese. No organic anything. No avocado toast because I’m not trying to destroy my chances of homeownership or whatever boomers think,” they wrote.
And still, their grocery bill is upwards of $80 at each checkout, even with just the basics. “Someone please tell me what I’m doing wrong or tell me we’re all suffering together,” @Wild-Nail4873 pleaded.
Feeling the Heat
Of course, the Redditor isn’t wrong. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food prices rose faster than inflation in 2025. This new year doesn’t bring much better news: Food prices are expected to increase 2.7%, though that’s slightly less than what was predicted for 2025. And as the Reddit post indicated, young shoppers seems to be making a statement about where they’re willing to shop as prices continue to climb.
A survey by The Feedback Group found that Gen Zers, millennials, and Gen Xers are increasingly turning to discount grocery stores like Walmart and Aldi. Only 8% of Gen Z shoppers in the survey said that their last grocery trip was to a traditional grocery store.
Still, everyone, no matter the generation, is feeling the heat.
“We are all suffering together,” wrote one Redditor in response to the original post. “Someone found a receipt from 10ish years ago that totaled $80 or something. Went and rebought everything on that receipt today and it was $200+ today.”
“It usually costs me $100 a week for groceries for just one person,” wrote another. “Just normal food, nothing fancy. And I shop at Walmart.”
Is There a Way Through?
Thankfully, Reddit isn’t just a place to vent — it’s also where people share solutions. And plenty of fellow budget shoppers offered suggestions for lowering a grocery bill.
There were obvious solutions, like switching to cheaper grocery stores (Aldi was mentioned frequently), as well as using food banks or supplementing with rice and beans. Some other interesting suggestions included:
- Making your own stocks, jellies, and jams.
- Learning to forage.
- Paying attention to the circulars at your grocery stores and only buying what’s on sale.
- Using food stamp matching.
- Using your grocery store’s discount section.
- Trying the FlashFood app.
- Shopping at international food stores.
But here’s the thing: We shouldn’t have to be donating our plasma or buying day-old bread just to have enough food in our fridge. We can eat all the rice and beans we want, but if the rice and beans keep getting more expensive, is that really the solution?
Anyways, eat your avocado toast, dear Redditor. It’s not going to make much of a difference either way.
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